‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2: Aegon’s Dream Is Rhaenyra’s Secret Weapon
House of the Dragon Season 2 could return on the battlefield the way the season finale left things. Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) has a big decision to make about how to handle Alicent (Olivia Cooke) orchestrating Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) usurping the throne. But, Rhaenyra has something Alicent doesn’t: Aegon I’s dream.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1.]
Creator and showrunner Ryan Condal was a guest on the House of the Dragon podcast on Oct. 23 after the season finale aired. Looking ahead to House of the Dragon Season 2, Condal addressed how Aegon’s Dream, The Song of Ice and Fire, would be Rhaenyra’s secret weapon.
Only Rhaenyra truly knows Aegon’s Dream of A Song of Ice and Fire
In the House of the Dragon pilot, Viserys (Paddy Considine) told Rhaenyra (then Milly Alcock) about The Song of Ice and Fire. Winter is coming, and it may take until Daenerys’s age to arrive. But, if Rhaenyra shares that story, it could change the tide of the coming war.
“I think that remains to be seen but it certainly is a burden,” Condal said on the House of the Dragon podcast. “We know that she knows it. We know that Daemon does not. And whatever little bit he heard, he was very dismissive of. We know that Alicent heard something but hasn’t quite put it together what it is. It is a thing going into this war, does that secret get passed on again?”
Aegon’s Dream is a major part of ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2
Before Alicent and Viserys named their son Aegon, there was already an Aegon. Viserys kept that story in a tight inner circle. With whom Rhaenyra shares it will be significant in House of the Dragon Season 2.
“As far as we know, Raenyra has not yet shared it with Jace, who would be her heir immediately upon Viserys’s passing and her own ascension,” Condal said. “It’s definitely going to play a role in the story moving ahead because it is the thing that Rhaenyra, uniquely Rhaenyra is going to wrestle with that the other side, simply they don’t have the knowledge. Thus they simply cannot be burdened by it at the moment.”
Viserys’ legacy lives on in ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2
Viserys died in episode 8. He won’t be in House of the Dragon Season 2, but Rhaenyra will still be coping with the life she lived under her father.
“She’s also dealing with the Song of Ice and Fire that her father instilled in her,” Condal said. “She’s responsible in her mind for doing the same thing that Viserys did, which is how do you hold the realm united and fight for your own claim? These things are paradoxically opposed to each other.”
Even before he picked a woman as his successor, Viserys was a different sort of king in Westeros. Rhaenyra can carry on his tradition in House of the Dragon Season 2, or it could be her peril.
“The way she learned how to do this job was by carrying her father’s cups and watching how he ran his council, which… is a very modern, progressive democratic way of ruling,” Condal said. “Viserys rules by consensus and he really does take in all the opinions of those around him, perhaps to too great a degree at times. We would see that as a person who does take in other people’s counsel. I think we see Rhaenyra starting to do that as she’s finding her own footing at the end of that table.”
